The present invention relates to a machine tool and in particular a machine to realise three dimensional models, having a carrying structure of the closed monocoque body type, with the advantage of greater lightness and rigidity with respect to known machines with latticework or tubular structures.
Due to this feature it is possible to give the machine a form such as to improve its manageability and viewing clarity in relation to the work zone, as will be illustrated in detail below in the description.
Thanks to this detail, the machine according to the invention is particularly suitable for use in offices, design studios or similar places.
Automatic or robot machine tools are well known for machining even complex shapes in a completely automatic way, under the control of a computerized structure. Many of these machines have a mobile support along a triad of cartesian axes, on which there is mounted a tool head in its turn equipped with two or more degrees of freedom, to which are applied the tools necessary for the different machining operations. Naturally this involves machines which, with respect to size and weight are not suitable for being used inside offices.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/656,239 describes a machine tool for realizing three dimensional models, to which there can be applied tools of different types to obtain the model from a surface defined using a CAD system.
This need to translate into practical terms a project defined only on paper in an ever more frequent occurrence, for example in design or planning offices, where once a design has been performed it is necessary to quickly realize a model at low cost to see how it looks in reality and then, once all the necessary modifications have been carried out on the model, carry these over to the CAD surface, for the subsequent production phase, mould pressing etc.
Technical progress, which makes available to the users ever more sophisticated software management systems, systems capable of being installed even in micro computers, has extended still further the range of possible application for these apparatuses. To be used advantageously in a planning studio, however, these machines must not only be small, silent and fast, but they must also be sufficiently accurate, able to carry out machining with tolerances of a few microns.
This involves needs which are difficult to resolve in a single package, given that it is necessary, with a support structure that is as light as possible, to endure without any deformation the high accelerations involved in machining at high speed. Whilst with regard to the mechanical and electronic part significant results have already been achieved, there are still different limitations, particularly with regard to the structure carrying the machine.